When you override any of the init sequence function remember to call or return the callback function*. Otherwise the config will not go any further.

The initialization task is handled by the BaseController:init method which calls the following methods in order:

this.initLog() // creates and sets up logger
this.initBeforeConfig(callback) // You can override this function to perform tasks before the config is parsed
this.initConfig(callback) // Creates additional loggers, initializes service configuration, sets controller basepath
this.initBeforeServices(callback) // You can override this function to perform tasks before the services are loaded
this.initServices(callback) // Loads services according to the configuration
this.initBeforeHandlers(callback) // You can override this function to perform tasks before the services are loaded
this.initHandlers(callback) // Loads handlers (currently loads the "stats" handler on "http" service)

For now services are the only way of using BaseController that you can consider stable.

Service is basically anything you want your application to do - start a HTTP Server, a socket server or anything else you like. Starting multiple services within one will allow you to host multiple applications within one process.

BaseController services are not separated from the controller -- they're not safe to use as say seaparate hosting for node.js application, but you could easily provide third party users with a single BaseController process. That coupled with a unix user and proper permissions should be enough for such use.

To initialize a service you simply need to create a node.js module in:

/path/to/where/your/basecontroller/is/services/name

/path/you/specify/as/basepath/in/your/config/name

install a basecontroller-svc-name module

The service module needs to export a function that will be called in context of controller:

module.exports = function(config, callback) {
...
callback(); // run this when your service is initialized and controller init may go on.
}